White House lashes out at Brazil over Ukraine
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is “parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda” by claiming that the West is not interested in ending the fighting in Ukraine, US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby has stated.
During his visit to China last week, Lula said that “the US needs to stop encouraging war and start talking about peace. The European Union needs to start talking about peace.”
The leftist politician, who made a comeback as Brazilian president after succeeding Jair Bolsonaro in early 2023, also reportedly suggested that the status of Crimea should be up for discussion during the talks between Moscow and Kiev. Lula also offered to become a part of the group mediating a peaceful settlement.
When asked to comment on those statements on Monday, Kirby said that “in this case, Brazil is parroting Russian and Chinese propaganda without at all looking at the facts.”
“Obviously, we want the war to end. That could happen right now, today, if Mr. Putin would stop attacking Ukraine and pull [Russia’s] troops out,” he said, reiterating Washington’s stance on the issue.
As for the possibility of Ukraine accepting Crimea as part of Russia being among the possible peace concessions, those comments were “simply misguided, especially for a country like Brazil that has voted to uphold the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity” at the UN, Kirby said.
On Tuesday, Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira rejected US claims that his country lacked understanding of the events in Ukraine. “I don't know how or why they came to that conclusion, but I totally disagree,” Vieira said at a joint press-conference with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Brasilia.
Speaking about the Ukraine conflict, Lavrov pointed out that Russia was “grateful to our Brazilian friends for their excellent understanding of this situation’s genesis. We are grateful [to them] for striving to contribute to finding ways to settle it.”
Moscow would like to see the fighting in Ukraine, which has been underway for more than a year, “concluding as soon as possible,” the Russian foreign minister said. However, he stressed that any settlement could only be based on long-term agreements and “take into account the interests of all countries without exception.”
